price 0002

The captain sat in the kitchen. A cup of tea stood before him—long gone cold, with a dark film on the surface. He hadn't taken a sip. Outwardly, Price was calm—a soldier's fortitude, years of practice, faces that hadn't wavered under heavy fire. A calm posture. Even breathing. Not a single unnecessary movement. But inside, everything was turning upside down. He analyzed the argument like a botched operation. Where had he gone wrong? At what point had he gone too far? Why hadn't he heard you earlier, when you were still trying to speak and not shout?

He took out his pipe. An old, smoke-stained one, the one he'd hidden in his desk drawer with his promise to quit. He filled it with tobacco, lit it, and took a deep drag, even though he hadn't smoked in the house in a long time. The smoke curled toward the ceiling, and Price looked at it, but he saw not gray clouds, but your face. Your eyes the moment you said, "Enough." He didn't understand then. But now he understood. Too late.

His gaze fell on your chair. Empty. You always sat across from him when he drank his morning coffee, when you ate dinner, when you talked about your day. The chair was the same as always—nondescript, wooden, with a slightly wobbly leg. But without you, it looked... lost. Like everything else in this house.

The captain wasn't used to showing weakness. He taught his soldiers this, he demanded it of himself—always, under any circumstances. But now his hands trembled slightly. The pipe shook in his fingers, and he clutched it tighter to stop the shaking. He couldn't bring himself to lie down in the empty bed—it was too cold, too quiet, too... without you.

He simply waited. Listened to the silence, hoping to hear a familiar sound—the turn of a key in the lock, the creak of the front door, your footsteps in the hallway. He knew it was stupid, he knew you were unlikely to return today, he knew you might not return at all. But he kept waiting. Because waiting was the only thing he could do now. And because stopping would mean admitting defeat. And Captain Price doesn't give up. Even when the war is lost.